Safe routing for navigation systems

ABSTRACT

Examples provided herein describe a navigation system to identify routes that take safety considerations into account. The system accesses safety data from various sources and computes safety data for individual road segments of a map database at multiple times for each road segment. The road segment safety data is used when determining routes for requested trips, including estimating the times that the various road segments on the route will be traversed and determining the safety of each road segment at that time.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/272,915, filed Feb. 11, 2019, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/969,743 (now U.S. Pat. No. 10,209,085), filedMay 2, 2018, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/881,677 (now U.S. Pat. No. 10,036,644), filed Jan. 26, 2018, which isin turn a continuation of U.S. Pat. No. 9,927,252 (now U.S. Pat. No.9,927,252), filed on Dec. 14, 2016, all of which are hereby incorporatedby reference.

FIELD OF ART

This disclosure generally relates to the field of electronic navigationsystems, and more specifically, to navigation that factors in safetyconsiderations when routing.

BACKGROUND

Conventional navigation systems identify routes based on criteria suchas total trip time and/or distance. However, users of navigation systemmay have a number of criteria that are of interest to them, and notsolely existing criteria such as trip time. For example, safety is aconcern that is of particular importance to a number of users, such asthose traveling with their families, those traveling at night, etc.Unfortunately, existing systems provide little or no ability for usersto determine routes that maximize safety, or that at least take safetyinto account.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a view of an environment in which users use theirclient devices to interact with a server, such as to arrangetransportation services, according to one embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a data flow diagram illustrating the origin and derivation ofthe data sources used by the navigation module of FIG. 1 whencalculating routes that take safety into account, according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a detailed view of the server ofFIG. 1, according to one embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a sequence diagram illustrating the interactions taking placeas part of the overall process of determining routes that take safetyinto account, according to one embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a high-level block diagram illustrating physical components ofa computer used as part or all of the server or client devices from FIG.1, according to one embodiment.

FIG. 6 illustrates a user interface of an application on the clientdevice of a rider, according to one embodiment.

The figures depict various embodiments for purposes of illustrationonly. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the followingdescription that alternative embodiments of the structures and methodsillustrated herein may be employed without departing from the examplesdescribed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Example methods and systems disclosed herein can facilitaterequester-provider matching and routing by a transportation servicessystem that takes into account the safety of the driver and of therider. For example, a server deployed within a transportation servicessystem can receive a request for a ride from a user. The server canmatch the user with an available driver and recommend a pick uplocation, a navigation route, and/or a drop off location. Based on anumber of factors—such as, but not limited to, time of day, the amountof traffic, the weather, the driver's skill, and other like factorsrelevant to the safety of the rider and driver—the pick-up location,route, and/or drop-off location can be determined to meet some safetycriteria. To this end, the server can track historical trip data andaccess a number of databases to determine the optimal trip that takesinto account safety. Methods and systems are described below in greaterdetail.

Example methods and systems described below can utilize data relevant tosafety to improve the safety of the trip without negatively affectingservice for any particular area. A user requesting a ride from locationA to location B will receive the requested service, and the system willanalyze safety considerations in a way that may affect, if at all, therecommended pick-up location, the recommended drop-off location, or therecommended route from location A to location B. Thus, in an exampleaspect, service neutrality can be maintained across the area of service.

FIG. 1 illustrates a detailed view of an environment in which users usetheir client devices 120 to communicate with a server(s) 100, such as torequest transportation services, according to one embodiment. Forexample, the server 100 can provide a network service to enable users torequest location-based services using their respective designated clientapplications, such as to obtain transportation to a particulardestination. The server 100 can process the requests to identify serviceproviders to provide the requested services for the users.

The client device 120 can correspond to a computing device, such as asmart phone, tablet computer, laptop, or any other device that cancommunicate over the network 140 with the server(s) 100. In theembodiment illustrated in FIG. 1, the client devices 120 include anapplication 121 that the users of the client devices use to interactwith the server 100, e.g., to provide location data and queries to theserver 100, to receive map-related data and/or directions from theserver, and the like. In one embodiment, the application 121 is createdand made available by the same organization responsible for the server100. Alternatively, in another example, the application 121 can be athird-party application that includes features (e.g., an applicationprogramming interface or software development kit) that enablescommunications with the server 100.

The network 140 may be any suitable communications network for datatransmission. In an embodiment such as that illustrated in FIG. 1, thenetwork 140 uses standard communications technologies and/or protocolsand can include the Internet. In another embodiment, the entities usecustom and/or dedicated data communications technologies.

The server 100 comprises a navigation module 105 and a data store 110.The navigation module 105 facilitates the transportation of one user(hereinafter referred to as the rider)—or of objects, such as groceries,packages, or the like—by a second user (hereinafter referred to as thedriver) from a first location (hereinafter referred to as the pickuplocation) to a second location (hereinafter referred to as thedestination location, or simply the destination), such as by providingmap and/or navigation instructions to the respective client applicationof the driver. In one example, the server 100 can include a matchingservice (not illustrated in FIG. 1 for purposes of simplicity) thatfacilitates a rider requesting a trip from a pickup location to adestination location, and further facilitates a driver agreeing toprovide the trip to the rider. For example, the matching serviceinteracts with the applications 121 of the rider and a selected driver,establishes a trip for the rider to be transported from the pickuplocation and the destination location, and handles payment to be made bythe rider to the driver. Additionally, in one embodiment, the navigationmodule 105 interacts with at least the application 121 of the driverduring the trip, obtaining trip location information from theapplication (e.g., via Global Positioning System (GPS) or othergeolocation coordinates) and providing navigation directions to theapplication that aid the driver in traveling from the driver's currentlocation to the specified destination of the trip. The navigation module105 may also facilitate a driver navigating to or obtaining informationabout a particular location, regardless of whether the driver has arider, such as permitting the driver to navigate to a particular gasstation, to an area of high demand for drivers, or to the pickuplocation of a rider.

In some embodiments, the navigation module 105 assists a driver innavigating to an effective waiting location. The waiting location is alocation for a driver that the navigation module 105 determines willimprove the likelihood that the driver will be matched with a riderrequest in future. For example, the waiting location might be a locationthat minimizes the average distance to a set of expected (e.g., prior)pickup requests. The navigation module 105 may take safety intoconsideration when identifying a waiting location, e.g., to improvedriver safety by recommending a waiting location that is known to besafe as well as nearby to expected pickup requests, and/or by using aroute to the waiting location that traverses road segments that areknown to be safe.

The data store 110 comprises various types of data that the navigationmodule 105 uses to provide navigation services and otherwise facilitatetransportation. More specifically, the data store 110 includes user data111, which includes information on all the registered users of thesystem, such as drivers and riders. The information may include, forexample, user name, password full name, home address, billinginformation, prior trips taken by the user, and the like.

The data store further includes map data 112. The map data 112 includethe information used to calculate routes, to render graphical maps, andthe like. For example, the map data 112 include elements such asintersections and the roads connecting them, bridges, off-ramps,buildings, and the like, along with their associated locations (e.g., asgeo-coordinates). In some embodiments the map data 112 also includesdata about the “road segments”—the portions of the roads that connectthe various pairs of map points such as intersections. The road segmentsmay have associated data, such as road segment distance, the typicaltime to traverse a road segment from the point on one side of thesegment to the point on the other, and the like. In some embodiments,this data is augmented to include a safety rating of the segment foreach of a set of times of day, as described in more detail below withrespect to the road segment safety calculator 320.

The data store further includes trip data 113. In some embodiments thetrip data include data on the drivers of the trips, such as a rating,report, or comments given to or about the driver by the rider, and datarelated to the trip times and locations, such as the starting time,ending time, starting location, ending location, cost, duration, totaldistance, and/or a list of locations (e.g., road segment IDs) that thetrip passed through and the times at which they were reached.

Furthermore, trip data 113 can include the number of passengers in thevehicle, which can be indicative of safety. For example, in somesituations, more passengers can indicate increased safety (e.g., “safetyin numbers”). In other situations, more passengers can indicatedecreased safety (e.g., carpooling intoxicated strangers).

Further yet, vehicle make, model, year, and health can indicate safety.Certain vehicles are safer than others because some vehicles are morereliable, have better performance, are more structurally secure, haveadvanced safety features, and/or are less likely targets of theft.

The users (e.g., riders and/or drivers) of the server may specify usersafety preferences 114 for navigation, such as the extent to which theuser prefers to prioritize safety with respect to other factors. In oneembodiment, the user specifies a weighting to apply to each factor(e.g., safety, total time, total distance, total cost) to indicate theirrelative importances to that user. The weightings may be specifieddirectly or indirectly, such as directly by typing in numerical weightvalues into a user interface, directly by adjusting user interfaceelements such as sliders that correspond to the weights, or indirectlyby choosing a single pre-set option that the server 100 maps to acorresponding set of weights to use (e.g., for a “family trip” option, ahigh weighting on safety and low weighting on total distance, or for a“commuter” option, a high weighting on total time, a moderate weightingon total distance, and a low weighting on safety). Weightings may alsobe specified for greater degrees of granularity, such as for differentsub-types of safety considerations (e.g., weather hazards, crime, orinterpersonal conflicts with drivers).

The data store further includes safety data 115. The safety data 115 isrelevant to the safety of driving on a route, either directly orindirectly providing information about the safety of various roadsegments at various times. For example, the safety data 115 couldinclude, but are not limited to:

(A) Trip drop-off and pick-up times and locations and volume of thosetrips. Knowledge of the volume of trips at given locations may help topredict degrees of safety, since greater volumes could lead to moreaccidents.

(B) Telematics data quantifying activity of the vehicle used on thetrip, such as speed, amount of swerving, and amount of braking forindividual trips and the individual drivers of those trips. Thistelematics data, e.g., aggregated over a number of users, can be used toidentify dangerous road segments and/or how safe a particular driver is.

(C) Safety incident data, such as locations, times, drivers, and ridersrelated to accidents, interpersonal conflicts (e.g., as expressed bycomplaints about drivers), or third party violence (e.g., at particularlocations and times, or related to particular companies or otherorganizations). This data can likewise be used to identify dangerousroad segments, and/or how safe a particular driver is.

(D) Location names and location types of establishments (such asrestaurants, bars, or hotels). For example, particular location typesmay be known or believed to be more or less safe than others, and hencemapped by the server 100 to different safety scores for the roadsegments in (or near) which they are located. (E.g., police stationsmight be known to be relatively safe, and bars to be relatively unsafe.)

The environment of FIG. 1 also includes one or more third-party datasources 130. The third-party data sources 130 have safety data 135,which either directly or indirectly provide information about the safetyof various road segments at various times. For example, the third-partysafety data 135 could include, but are not limited to:

(A) Academic databases, such as those possessed by universities, e.g.,updating in near-real time the reports of violent conflicts atparticular locations and times.

(B) Event websites, listing the schedules (e.g., times and locations) ofparticular events and event types. (Particular types of events may beknown or believed to be more or less safe, and/or to lead to a largevolume of nearby people/traffic.)

(C) Sports websites, which can be analyzed to determine when and wheresporting events will be taking place, for example.

(D) City or other governmental databases or websites, such as thoseproviding domestic crime data.

(E) News media databases, such as those offering machine coding ofevents and stories (e.g., incidents of violent crime, or negative orpositive news stories about a particular company or location).

(F) Satellite imagery, which can be used to detect storms, fires, theeffects of earthquakes, numbers of vehicles in a particular area, andthe like.

(G) Weather data (e.g., storms, rain, floods, etc.).

(H) Social media data, which can be analyzed to identify (for example)sentiment about events, companies, and the like.

(I) Transportation information, such as traffic data.

It is appreciated that the various types of data of FIG. 1 may be storedin any manner. For example, though the various data 111-115 areillustrated as being distinct, they might be included within the samedatabase, file, or other storage unit. Furthermore, although the data111-115 are described above as including particular types of data, itwill however be appreciated that each of the types of data can beincluded in any one or more of the data 111-115 in alternativeembodiments. As just one example, the safety data 115 could be stored aspart of the trip data 113 (e.g., information about speed of varioustrips) or the user data 111 (e.g., the speed at which the driver droveon various trips).

Although for simplicity only one server 100, one third-party data source130, and several client devices 120 are illustrated in the environmentFIG. 1, it is appreciated that there may be any number of both clientdevices 120 and servers 100 within the environment.

FIG. 6 illustrates a user interface of the application 121 on the clientdevice 120 of a rider, according to one embodiment. The user interfacepresents the rider with multiple route options optimizing the routeaccording to different criteria. Two such criteria—price and safety—areillustrated in FIG. 6 for purposes of simplicity, but it is appreciatedthat any number of such options could be provided. Specifically, thedata areas 604 indicate the criteria for which the route was optimized(namely, price and safety, in the example of FIG. 6), the estimatedarrival time (ETA), and the degree of traffic along the determinedroute. The map regions 608 visually depict the determined route on amap. Additionally, the map region 608B illustrates a safe waitinglocation 610 (visually indicated by an ‘X’) that the navigation module105 determined is safer for the rider and/or driver to wait for pickupthan the rider's specified origin location, and a safe dropoff location611 (visually indicated by a ‘Y’) that the navigation module 105determined is safer for the rider and/or driver to be dropped off thanthe rider's specified destination location. In some embodiments (notvisually illustrated in FIG. 6), at least the map region 608B for thesafety-optimized route visually illustrates portions of the map thatconsidered safe (e.g., with a particular color or pattern) to aid theusers in remaining within safe areas.

In one embodiment, the application 121 of a driver provides a visualindication of one or more locations on the map that the navigationmodule 105 determined to be effective waiting locations for the driverso as to maximize the likelihood of being matched with a rider triprequest, while simultaneously taking driver safety into account. Forexample, even while the driver is not currently assigned to a ride, theapplication 121 might recommend the driver to navigate to a locationthat is both safe and close to predicted origin locations of expectedfuture ride requests.

FIG. 2 is a data flow diagram illustrating the origin and derivation ofthe data sources used by the navigation module 105 when calculatingroutes that take safety into account, according to one embodiment.

Users of the navigation service provided by the server 100 specify theirvarious user safety preferences 114, as noted above with respect to FIG.1.

The trip data 113, the safety data 115, and/or third-party safety data135, are processed to derive driver ability data 325, whichcharacterize, for a given driver, how safe it will be to travel with thedriver (e.g., based on the skill of the driver or the reliability orcapability of the vehicle).

The map data 112 and safety data 115 of the server 100, and the safetydata 135 of the third-party data sources 130, are processed together toderive road segment safety data 305. The road segment safety data 305actually or conceptually supplements the map data 112, expressinginformation about the safety of the various segments of the road atdifferent times of day.

When a given user requests a trip to a particular destination, indifferent embodiments the driver ability data 325 of the potentialdrivers, and the user's specified safety preferences 114 (if any), aswell as the road segment safety data 305 itself, are taken into accountwhen determining (e.g., computing or selecting) a route and, in exampleembodiments, a driver for the rider.

Additionally or alternatively, the server 100 can use the data togenerate warnings that are provided to the users to indicate unsafesituations.

Additional details are now provided with respect to FIG. 3.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a detailed view of the server 100of FIG. 1, according to one embodiment.

The server 100 stores map data 112, trip data 113, user safetypreferences 114, and safety data 115, as described above with respect toFIG. 1. The navigation module 105 further comprises a driver abilitycalculator 310, a road segment safety calculator 320, and a routecalculator 330.

The driver ability calculator 310 processes the trip data 113 and thesafety data 115 to generate the driver ability data 325. The driverability data 325 quantifies the driver's ability to drive safely so asto minimize different types of risks. In some embodiments, a singleability score is computed for each driver; in other embodiments, a setof driver ability sub-scores is calculated for each driver (e.g.,weather type scores indicating the driver's skill in different types ofweather, such as rain, wind, and the like; or interpersonal conflictscores, indicating the driver's propensity to have disputes or otherconflicts with riders), instead of or in addition to a single overallability score. As some examples of the computation of the driver abilitydata score (and/or sub-scores) in various embodiments, the driverability calculator 310 analyzes driver interpersonal conflicts based onreported interpersonal conflicts in the safety incident data of thesafety data 115, or driver skill in different types of weather based onaccidents listed within the safety incident data and known weather fromthe third-party safety data 135.

The server 100 also comprises a road segment safety calculator 320 thatgenerates road segment safety data 305 based on the map data 112 and thesafety data 135, 115.

The road segment safety calculator 320 extracts and processessafety-related data from the various safety data 135, 115, associatingthe safety-related data with particular road segments and/or times, andderiving safety scores for those road segments/times based on the natureof the data. For example, road segment safety calculator 320 may extractlocations and times of reported safety-related incidents and map thoselocations to particular road segments in the map data 112, and tocorresponding time ranges.

Using the extracted safety-related data, the road segment safetycalculator 320 computes a safety score for the various road segments inthe map data 112, the collection of the scores forming the road segmentsafety data 305. Further, since the degree of safety of a road segmentmay be a function of time as well as of the segment's location, safetyscores are computed for the various road segments at multiple differenttimes. For example, in some embodiments a safety score is calculated foreach road segment for each 30-minute interval (and thus there are 48safety scores for each road segment, corresponding to the 48 30-minutetime intervals in a day). In some embodiments, there are also separatescores for each day of the week (e.g., 48 scores for each of 7 days ofthe week), or separate scores for weekdays and for weekends. In suchembodiments, the safety scores may be stored in a data structure inwhich the segment ID and time range are index inputs and a safety scoreis the output, such as the following excerpt from hypothetical roadsegment safety data 305:

Segment-ID Time range Safety score 1 Midnight-12:30 AM 8 1 12:30 AM-1:00AM 12  . . . . . . . . . 2 Midnight-12:30 AM 4 . . . . . . . . .

In some embodiments, the overall score for a particular <road segment,time range> pair is computed as a weighted sum of different types ofsafety considerations. For example, numerical data for a first type ofsafety consideration for a given road segment and time range could becomputed and multiplied by a given weight (e.g., 0.5) to produce asub-score, and the same could be done for the other types of safetyconsiderations, and the sub-scores summed to produce an overall safetyscore. In some embodiments, the sub-scores for the various safetyconsiderations are stored for each <road segment, time range> pair, inaddition to the overall safety score being stored.

In one embodiment, the road segment safety data 305 is incorporated intothe same data structure(s) already storing the map data 112. Forexample, assuming that the map data 112 already stores for each segmentand time range the average time required to traverse the segment duringthat time range, the safety score for the segment at each of the timeranges could be added to the map data 112, producing data such as thefollowing hypothetical excerpt:

Average traversal Segment-ID Time range time (seconds) Safety score 1Midnight-12:30 AM 30 8 1 12:30 AM-1:00 AM 29 12  . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Midnight-12:30 AM 40 4 . . . . . . . . . . . .

In one embodiment, the road segment safety calculator 320 validates theaccuracy of the computed road segment safety data 305. In one suchembodiment, the route calculator 330 (discussed in more detail below)calculates trip routes for some users requesting rides without using thesafety data 305, and for some users by using the safety data 305; theserver 100 obtains information about safety-related incidents occurringon the various routes; the server then later analyzes the information toassess the relative safety of the trips whose routes were calculatedusing the safety data 305 versus those whose routes were not calculatedusing the safety data.

As stated, the server 100 also comprises the route calculator 330 thatcalculates routes. For instance, the route calculator 330 can calculateroutes to use from a particular pickup location to a particulardestination location, using safety as a factor. More specifically, oneor more possible sequences of road segments from the pickup location tothe destination location are analyzed, with each road segment beingassigned a score (partially or entirely based on the road segment'ssafety data 305), and the road segment scores of the road segments oneach of the various analyzed routes are summed for each analyzed route,producing overall route score for each sequence of road segments.

In example embodiments, the route calculator 330 can, additionally oralternatively, determine pick-up and drop-off locations based on safetyconsiderations. For instance, based on historical trip data, sensordata, and/or third party data, the route calculator 330 can determinerecommended pick-up or drop-off areas that are safe for passengersand/or safe for drivers. Safe areas may be determined based on thenumber of incidents relevant to driver or rider safety (e.g.,car-and-car or car-and-pedestrian accidents, crime incidents related todriver or rider safety such as car-jacking, car theft, or assault onindividuals or an organization associated with the driver, etc.), thepresence of lighting (e.g., during nighttime drop offs), the level ofroad traffic, the presence of pull-off areas (e.g., an unloading area),the presence of pedestrians, and one or more of the like.

In an illustrative example, the methods and systems disclosed herein canbe used to improve safety of a carpool mode. In a carpool mode, thesystem can determine recommended drop-off locations primarily based onthe efficiency of the shared trip for multiple riders. In this case, afirst rider may be dropped some distance from the rider's finaldestination and the first passenger then walks the remaining distance tothe final destination so that the travel times of the first and secondriders are optimized dependently. As disclosed herein, systems andmethods can also take into account safety data to improve safety for thedriver and the first and second riders. For example, the server 100 canselect a drop-off point that is safe for drop off and/or allows a safewalking route for the first passenger from the drop off location and thefirst passenger's final destination. The safe walking route can bedetermined and provided to the first rider by the server 100. Safewalking routes can be determined in a manner similar to the way thatdriving routes are generated.

Pick-up or drop-off locations can be determined in a number of ways. Forexample, the route calculator 330 can access predetermined safelocations stored in a database indexed by an initial end point. In anexample embodiment, predetermined safe locations can be stored withinthe map data 112, which can provide predetermined safe locations for adestination based at least on time of day, day of the week, month, orany other suitable unit of time.

Additionally or alternatively, the route calculator can determine safepick up and drop off locations en route (e.g., in real time) based onsensed data, such are real-time traffic or weather data or sensedambient light (e.g., to ensure drop off or pickups occur in well-lit ormonitored areas).

In embodiments that factor in driver skill into the overall routesafety, the safety score for a particular road segment along aparticular route can be computed dynamically for each potential driver.For example, for embodiments in which the driver ability data 325includes different sub-scores for each driver, such as the driver'sability at different times of day (e.g., night driving), or in certainenvironmental conditions (e.g., rain), that driver ability data can becombined with the data known about the particular road segments alongthe route to modify the pre-calculated (non-driver-specific) roadsegment safety data 305. For instance, if a particular potential driveris known to perform well for night driving, then road segments along aroute which would be traversed at night could have their safety scoresincreased for that route with respect to that driver.

In some embodiments, the driver ability data 325 for a potential driveris not applied on a per-road segment basis, but rather applied to anoverall route score. For example, if a first route received an overallscore (or a safety score) of x, and the driver's ability score were y,then the route might be assigned a modified overall score (or modifiedsafety score) of xy, or x+y, for example.

Additionally, some embodiments factor in real-time environmentalconditions into the safety scores for the various road segments. Forexample, events—such as current weather conditions, or currentlarge-scale events such as concerts or political visits—that are notable to be readily predicted based on past known data can be identifiedin real or near-real time based on the safety data 115, 135 and used tocompute real-time road segment safety scores. For instance, the roadsegment scores of road segment safety data 305 can be modified for aparticular segment with respect to a trip to take into account thatthere is a concert at or near that road segment at a time that the routeis predicted to traverse that road segment, which is predicted to reducethe safety of driving in that road segment, as well as increasing thetime that it will take to traverse that road segment. (The modificationof the road segment scores of the road segment safety data 305 are saidto be with respect to the trip in that they do not modify the roadsegment safety data 305 as it is stored, but rather use the safety data305 as an input for computing real-time road segment safety data scoresfor the particular trip, given the specifics of the trip such as thestart time of the trip, the rider, the potential drivers, the currentenvironmental conditions, etc.)

When summing the road segment safety scores along the various possibleroutes, the route calculator 330 indexes into the data structure storingthe road segment safety data based on the road segment and the time atwhich the trip is estimated to be traversing that road segment. Averagetraversal time data for the various segments can be used to determine atime at which a particular route will traverse at a particular segment,e.g., by adding, to the starting time of the trip, the sum of thetraversal times of the road segments earlier in the route. For example,if a particular route from the pickup location to the destinationlocation were estimated to begin at 6:52 PM and end at 7:36 PM, and thesum of the average traversal times for prior road segments on that routewere 34 minutes, then the next road segment would be estimated to betraversed starting at 7:26 PM. Accordingly, in embodiments that tracksafety scores for 30-minute ranges, the safety for the road segment(without factoring in real-time data based on the driver or currentenvironmental conditions) would be determined by indexing into the roadsegment safety data 305 for that road segment and for the time rangefrom 7:00 to 7:30 PM.

In one embodiment, a weighted shortest path graph algorithm is employedto determine the optimal route, with the intersections between the roadsegments being the nodes of the graph, and the weights for the edgesbeing the road segment scores for the road segments that correspond tothe edges (e.g., the overall scores). In various embodiments, thealgorithm is Dijkstra's algorithm or the A* algorithm.

The overall scores for the road segments on a route may be computeddifferently in different embodiments. For example, the overall scoresmay simply be the overall safety scores (e.g., the safety scores of theroad segment safety data 305, as possibly modified based on thepotential driver and/or the real-time environmental conditions).Alternatively, the overall scores may be a weighted sum of variousscores, such as the overall safety score, the road segment distance, theroad segment expected travel time, or the like.

In sum, in one embodiment the safety score for a particular road segmentk at time interval t for driver i and rider j may be expressed as:

safety(roadSegment_ijkt)=ß1*accidents+

ß2*speeding+

ßn*realTimeData,

where accidents represents the historical accident rate on roadSegment kat time t, speeding represents the historical average speed onroadSegment k at time t, and realTimeData represents all other safetystatistics in safety data 115 and 135 in FIG. 2 (which includes and isnot limited to: phone handling, hard braking, and hard accelerationsbased on telematics data, weather conditions, and emergency situations).Although accidents and speeding are illustrated in the above equation,in general, any safety factor (such as accidents or speeding) could beincluded, e.g., as part of the weighted combination above. The β1, β2, .. . , fin are weights that control the relative importance of eachsafety statistic in the calculation of the safety score. In someembodiments, the βn weights are determined by the preferences of rider j(as defined by the rider's user safety preferences 114) and drivingabilities of driver i (as defined by the driver's driver ability data325). E.g., if the road segment has a low safety score for one type ofsafety consideration, but the particular rider is primarily concernedabout a second type of safety consideration, then the negative impact onthe safety score is comparatively lower than it would be if the riderwere more concerned about the first type of safety consideration. Inother embodiments, the βn weights are estimated using statistical modelsand machine learning in order to predict the safety of roadSegment k ata time tin the future based on historical safety statistics for thatroad segment. In most embodiments, driver abilities, rider preferences,and realTimeData are not known until the time that a rider requests aride, and so the scores stored in the road segment safety data 305 donot completely define safety(roadSegment), and therefore additionalcalculations are performed at route determination time to determine thesafety score of road segments on that particular trip and route.

The overall score for a road segment may take into account factors inaddition to safety, such as distance and/or travel time. In suchembodiments, the overall score for a road segment may be expressed as:

overall Score(roadSegment)=Σ_(t)[score_(t)*weight_(t)]

where t represents a particular type of score (e.g., safety score,distance score, time score), score_(t) represents the score for thattype of score, and weight_(t) represents the weight to be given to thattype of score.

The overall score for a route is then computed as the sum of the overallscores of the road segments along the route:

routeScore=Σ_(k)overallScore(roadSegment_k)

where k represents all roadSegment k's that the route traverses. Theoptimal safety route between given start and end locations is identifiedby solving the shortest path problem (lowest routeScore among allpossible routes), where the overallScore(roadSegment_k) are weights oneach edge in the road network (representing cost to traverse based ontime, distance, speed limits, and safety risks, amongst other things,for driver i and rider j at time interval t). In one embodiment, theshortest path problem is solved using Dijkstra's Shortest PathAlgorithm. Other common algorithms for identifying shortest pathsinclude: A*, Bellman-Ford, Floyd-Warshall, Prim, and Jump Point Search.

In some embodiments, the route calculator 330 performs route calculationentirely in response to a user's request; in other embodiments, in orderto speed up route calculation, portions of the routing computations arepre-computed, without respect to a particular user or to environmentalfactors.

In some embodiments, the route calculator 330 removes from considerationany road segments that have calculated safety scores below somethreshold. This protects drivers and riders from traveling through roadsegments that pose a significant risk. In different embodiments thethreshold may be for the road segment safety as a whole, or may be forparticular safety sub-scores for the various different safetyconsiderations, and may be either fixed values applying to all users, ormay be rider-specific, based on the rider's user safety preferences 114.For example, the user's safety preferences 114 may specify some minimumrequired safety level for each of various safety considerations.

In some embodiments, the route calculator 330 removes from considerationany routes that achieve a performance that is a threshold amount worse(with respect to some specified non-safety metric) than the optimalroute that does not take safety into account (e.g., referred to hereinas the “baseline route”). For example, a route taking safety intoaccount but taking more than, say, 20% more time or increasing the tripfare by 15% more than the baseline route not considering safety could beremoved from consideration.

In some embodiments, the route calculator 330 is configured compare acandidate safe route with the baseline route. The comparison can bebased on one or more performance metrics, such as time, distance, orcost. In an example embodiment, the route calculator 330 automatically(e.g., without user intervention) selects the candidate route where theperformance difference is less than a threshold. Based on determinationthat the safe route has a performance difference above the threshold,the server 100 provides the user (e.g., just the driver, just the rider,or both the rider and the driver) a request to approve the safe routeover the baseline route.

In example embodiments, the server 100 compares user safety preferences114 of the rider and the driver prior to matching the rider and thedriver. In one aspect, the server 100 identifies that a candidate driverand the rider have user safety preferences 114 that do or can cause aconflict (e.g., the rider prefers to keep the far the lowest and thedriver requires the safest route). In such a case, the server 100 candetermine another candidate driver to match to the rider.

Thresholds can be specified individually as part of the user safetypreferences 114.

While FIG. 3 shows that server 100 includes particular components, itwill be appreciated that one or more components of server 100 can bedeployed, wholly or partially, in any suitable device of FIG. 1 inalternative embodiments.

FIG. 4 is a sequence diagram illustrating the interactions taking placeas part of the overall process of determining routes that take safetyinto account, according to one embodiment.

At one or more times, the server 100 computes 405 driver ability scoresfor the various drivers based on existing driver data, as discussedabove with respect to the driver ability calculator 310.

The various users use their client devices 120 to specify 415 theirpersonal safety preferences, which are reflected in the user safetypreferences data 114.

The server 100 requests 425 and obtains 430 data from the variousthird-party data sources 130, and using that data computes 435 the roadsegment safety scores 305, as discussed above with respect to the roadsegment safety calculator 320.

A particular user then uses the user's client device 120 to request 455a trip from a pickup location to a destination location. Accordingly,the server 100 determines 460 a route that takes safety into account, asdiscussed above with respect to the route calculator 330.

FIG. 5 is a high-level block diagram illustrating physical components ofa computer 500 used as part or all of the server 100 or client devices120 from FIG. 1, according to one embodiment. Illustrated are at leastone processor 502 coupled to a chipset 504. Also coupled to the chipset504 are a memory 506, a storage device 508, a graphics adapter 512, anda network adapter 516. A display 518 is coupled to the graphics adapter512. In one embodiment, the functionality of the chipset 504 is providedby a memory controller hub 520 and an I/O controller hub 522. In anotherembodiment, the memory 506 is coupled directly to the processor 502instead of the chipset 504.

The storage device 508 is any non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium, such as a hard drive, compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM),DVD, or a solid-state memory device. The memory 506 holds instructionsand data used by the processor 502. The graphics adapter 512 displaysimages and other information on the display 518. The network adapter 516couples the computer 500 to a local or wide area network.

As is known in the art, a computer 500 can have different and/or othercomponents than those shown in FIG. 5. In addition, the computer 500 canlack certain illustrated components. In one embodiment, a computer 500such as a server or smartphone may lack a graphics adapter 512, and/ordisplay 518, as well as a keyboard or pointing device. Moreover, thestorage device 508 can be local and/or remote from the computer 500(such as embodied within a storage area network (SAN)).

As is known in the art, the computer 500 is adapted to execute computerprogram modules for providing functionality described herein. As usedherein, the term “module” refers to computer program logic utilized toprovide the specified functionality. Thus, a module can be implementedin hardware, firmware, and/or software. In one embodiment, programmodules are stored on the storage device 508, loaded into the memory506, and executed by the processor 502.

Embodiments of the entities described herein can include other and/ordifferent modules than the ones described here. In addition, thefunctionality attributed to the modules can be performed by other ordifferent modules in other embodiments. Moreover, this descriptionoccasionally omits the term “module” for purposes of clarity andconvenience.

The present invention has been described in particular detail withrespect to one possible embodiment. Those of skill in the art willappreciate that the invention may be practiced in other embodiments.First, the particular naming of the components and variables,capitalization of terms, the attributes, data structures, or any otherprogramming or structural aspect is not mandatory or significant, andthe mechanisms that implement the invention or its features may havedifferent names, formats, or protocols. Also, the particular division offunctionality between the various system components described herein ismerely for purposes of example, and is not mandatory; functionsperformed by a single system component may instead be performed bymultiple components, and functions performed by multiple components mayinstead performed by a single component.

Some portions of above description present the features of the presentinvention in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations ofoperations on information. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are the means used by those skilled in the dataprocessing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their workto others skilled in the art. These operations, while describedfunctionally or logically, are understood to be implemented by computerprograms. Furthermore, it has also proven convenient at times, to referto these arrangements of operations as modules or by functional names,without loss of generality.

Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the abovediscussion, it is appreciated that throughout the description,discussions utilizing terms such as “determining” or “displaying” or thelike, refer to the action and processes of a computer system, or similarelectronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms datarepresented as physical (electronic) quantities within the computersystem memories or registers or other such information storage,transmission or display devices.

Certain aspects of the present invention include process steps andinstructions described herein in the form of an algorithm. It should benoted that the process steps and instructions of the present inventioncould be embodied in software, firmware or hardware, and when embodiedin software, could be downloaded to reside on and be operated fromdifferent platforms used by real time network operating systems.

The present invention also relates to an apparatus for performing theoperations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for therequired purposes, or it may comprise a general-purpose computerselectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored on acomputer readable medium that can be accessed by the computer. Such acomputer program may be stored in a non-transitory computer readablestorage medium, such as, but is not limited to, any type of diskincluding floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, magnetic-optical disks,read-only memories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs), EPROMs,EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, application specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), or any type of computer-readable storage mediumsuitable for storing electronic instructions, and each coupled to acomputer system bus. Furthermore, the computers referred to in thespecification may include a single processor or may be architecturesemploying multiple processor designs for increased computing capability.

The algorithms and operations presented herein are not inherentlyrelated to any particular computer or other apparatus. Variousgeneral-purpose systems may also be used with programs in accordancewith the teachings herein, or it may prove convenient to construct morespecialized apparatus to perform the required method steps. The requiredstructure for a variety of these systems will be apparent to those ofskill in the art, along with equivalent variations. In addition, thepresent invention is not described with reference to any particularprogramming language. It is appreciated that a variety of programminglanguages may be used to implement the teachings of the presentinvention as described herein, and any references to specific languagesare provided for invention of enablement and best mode of the presentinvention.

The present invention is well suited to a wide variety of computernetwork systems over numerous topologies. Within this field, theconfiguration and management of large networks comprise storage devicesand computers that are communicatively coupled to dissimilar computersand storage devices over a network, such as the Internet.

Finally, it should be noted that the language used in the specificationhas been principally selected for readability and instructionalpurposes, and may not have been selected to delineate or circumscribethe inventive subject matter. Accordingly, the disclosure of the presentinvention is intended to be illustrative, but not limiting, of the scopeof the invention, which is set forth in the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method comprising:receiving a request for a trip; accessing road segment safety dataindicating safety-related data for one or more given road segments of amap database for one or more time periods, such that each of the one ormore given road segments has associated stored safety-related data foreach of the one or more time periods; determining at least one of thefollowing, based at least in part on the road segment safety data: asafe pick-up location for the trip, or a safe drop-off location for thetrip; and determining a route for the trip using at least the roadsegment safety data and the at least one of the safe pick-up location orthe safe drop-off location.
 2. The computer-implemented method of claim1, further comprising determining at least one of the safe pick-uplocation or the safe drop-off location using real-time sensed datacomprising at least one of real-time traffic data, real-time weatherdata, or sensed ambient light.
 3. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 1, wherein determining a route for the trip comprises: computingexpected times at which the route will traverse road segments on theroute; identifying the safety-related data of at least some of the roadsegments on the route; and determining overall safety scores for theroad segments on the route using the identified safety-related data ofat least some of the road segments on the route and using the computedexpected times.
 4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, whereindetermining the route for the trip using the road segment safety datacomprises: applying a weighted shortest path graph algorithm to the mapdatabase and to the determined overall safety scores to select theroute.
 5. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, furthercomprising, responsive to receiving the trip request: identifyingpotential drivers to carry out the trip request; and modifying the roadsegment safety data for the trip using driver ability data correspondingto the identified potential drivers.
 6. The computer-implemented methodof claim 5, further comprising computing a driver interpersonal conflictsafety score based on rider reports of prior trips of a driver, whereinthe driver ability data for a driver includes the driver interpersonalconflict safety score.
 7. The computer-implemented method of claim 5,wherein the driver ability data for a driver includes a plurality ofscores quantifying an ability of the driver to drive in a correspondingplurality of environmental conditions.
 8. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 7, wherein modifying the road segment safety datacomprises: identifying current environmental conditions for roadsegments in the map database; and modifying the road segment safety datafor the road segments using the identified current environmentalconditions and the plurality of scores quantifying the driver's abilityto drive in a corresponding plurality of environmental conditions. 9.The computer-implemented method of claim 3, further comprising,responsive to receiving the trip request: identifying user safetypreferences of a rider requesting the trip; and modifying the roadsegment safety data for the route using the user safety preferences. 10.The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the user safetypreferences include weightings corresponding to a plurality of differenttypes of safety risks, and wherein the road segment safety data includeweightings corresponding to the plurality of different types of safetyrisks and indicating degrees of those types of safety risks on the roadsegments of the map database.
 11. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 10, further comprising: receiving, from a rider requesting thetrip, a single pre-set option; and mapping the single pre-set option tothe weightings corresponding to the plurality of different types ofsafety risks.
 12. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, furthercomprising: determined a second route for the trip without using theroad segment safety data; and determining that the route determinedusing the road segment safety data is more than a threshold degree worsethan the second route with respect to a given non-safety metric; andrefraining from using the determined route responsive to determiningthat the route is more than the threshold degree worse.
 13. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 3, further comprising: for aplurality of additional requested trips, determining routes for a firstplurality of the trips using the road segment safety data and routes fora second plurality of the trips without using the road segment safetydata; and receiving information about occurrences of safety-relatedincidents on the trips; assessing accuracy of the road segment safetydata by comparing the occurrences of safety-related incidents on thefirst plurality of trips to the occurrences of safety-related incidentson the second plurality of trips.
 14. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 3, wherein the road segment safety data are computed usingtelematics data quantifying activity of vehicles used on trips.
 15. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the road segment safetydata are computed using real-time weather data.
 16. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the road segment safetydata are computed using safety incident data.
 17. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the road segment safetydata are computed using establishment types of establishments located atparticular locations, the method further comprising determining safetyscores for road segments based on road segments in which theestablishments are located and the establishment types.
 18. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the road segment safetydata are computed using traffic volume data.
 19. A non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executedby a computer processor perform actions comprising: receiving a requestfor a trip; accessing road segment safety data indicating safety-relateddata for one or more given road segments of a map database for one ormore time periods, such that each of the one or more given road segmentshas associated stored safety-related data for each of the one or moretime periods; and determining at least one of the following, based atleast in part on the road segment safety data: a safe pick-up locationfor the trip, or a safe drop-off location for the trip; and determininga route for the trip using at least the road segment safety data and theat least one of the safe pick-up location or the safe drop-off location.20. A computer system comprising: a computer processor; and anon-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructionsthat when executed by the computer processor perform actions comprising:receiving a request for a trip; accessing road segment safety dataindicating safety-related data for one or more given road segments of amap database for one or more time periods, such that each of the one ormore given road segments has associated stored safety-related data foreach of the one or more time periods; and determining at least one ofthe following, based at least in part on the road segment safety data: asafe pick-up location for the trip, or a safe drop-off location for thetrip; and determining a route for the trip using at least the roadsegment safety data and the at least one of the safe pick-up location orthe safe drop-off location.